Communications Director

COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR JOB AD Reports to: Executive Director of Organizing and Narrative Direct Reports: Communications Manager; Digital Strategist Status: Full-time (Exempt) Job Family: Director Salary: $97,867 Annually Location: Any of CFJ’s regional offices (Fresno, Long Beach, Oakland, or San Jose) Revision Date: January 2025 Organizational Overview Californians for Justice (CFJ) is a statewide, youth-powered organization dedicated to advancing racial and educational justice for marginalized communities, including people of color, immigrants, low-income families, and LGBTQIA2S+/TGNC youth. CFJ focuses on empowering young people through organizing efforts in schools and communities, equipping them with the tools, knowledge, and leadership skills needed to combat systemic inequities. With a focus on local and statewide policy reform, CFJ campaigns for adequate and equitable school funding, improved access to education, and the creation of Relationship-Centered Schools, which prioritize youth voice and positive, supportive relationships between students and adults. CFJ is the only grassroots, youth-led organization in California focused on empowering students to influence education policy both locally and statewide. The organization currently operates in four regional offices (Fresno, Long Beach, San Jose, and Oakland), employs 47 staff, and has a budget of $5 million. CFJ has earned recognition for its strong, dedicated staff team who share a commitment to youth power, racial justice, and building meaningful, trust-based relationships. The organization’s collaborative, purpose-driven culture ensures that every team member has a voice and a stake in the transformation of the communities it serves. Position Overview The Communications Director at CFJ leads a dynamic two-person team, including the Communications Manager and Digital Strategist, to execute strategies that advance the organization's mission of promoting Black Liberation and Racial Justice in public education. This role is pivotal in guiding the team to create and amplify narrative power that centers on Black liberation and educational justice, while enhancing CFJ’s visibility and reputation. The Communications Director ensures that all messaging is consistent, aligned with CFJ’s core values, and effectively integrated across campaigns. By maintaining a unified and compelling voice, the Director plays a critical role in shaping how the organization engages with the public, uplifts its mission, and drives forward the work for racial justice in education. Additional Details This full-time, exempt position involves discretion and independent judgment. It can be based in any of CFJ’s four offices—Fresno, Long Beach, Oakland, or San Jose—and requires some statewide travel. Staff work in a hybrid setting, attending in-person training, team, and community events as needed. Organizational Competencies Directors at CFJ are expected to demonstrate proficiency in the following competencies: Impactful Collaboration - Leads teams in finding their personal self-interest in their work. Seamlessly manages multiple projects and competing priorities. Can take functional goals and direction and distill them down to actionable projects the team needs to complete. Able to effectively and creatively identify resources needed to accomplish goals by leveraging new or existing resources. Problem Solving - Asks and answers: What, or who, is missing? Recommends strategies for optimizing processes to address long-term foreseeable problems and leverages industry knowledge to creatively problem-solve for department and functional goals. Anticipates and implements solutions for some of the most complex issues that will be encountered ensuring the work is rooted in quality. Sustainability - Models resilient protagonism for their team and coaches team(s) through rest/reflection/action cycles. Establishes systems and processes that allow the team to build resilient protagonism. Builds regular exchange of feedback into relationships and programs. Communication - Excels at internal and external communication. Owns multiple external partner and/or funder relationships and manages them effectively. Multiplies the effectiveness of others by facilitating cross-team communication and partnerships. Rallies team around unified goals and is able to effectively coach employees with different learning, communication, and working styles. Able to translate the impact of an employee's work to the org and team level goals. Relationship-Building - Models relationship-building for internal effectiveness and movement-building. Coaches others to build their own relationship-building skills. Possesses and continuously fosters a wide network of people involved in sector or movement work; shares network with others to build organizational effectiveness. Fostering Growth - Identifies growth opportunities within the department as well as strengths and weaknesses. Looks for opportunities to create challenging roles, responsibilities and developmental assignments that enhance the capabilities of others. Able to recruit, develop, and retain employees and to build and maintain an effective team; manages performance, provides meaningful coaching, and terminates non-performers as appropriate. Essential Responsibilities Strategy & Campaigns (35%) Own development of an impactful strategic communications plan that advances CFJ’s mission and strategic plan from start to finish. Develop communication strategies rooted in a Black Liberation framework that includes local & statewide campaigns and policies to build narrative and political power with the support of the communications team and Statewide team. Leads and oversees the framing and narrative strategy for regional & policy campaigns, including but not limited to the California Partnership for the Future of Learning. Nimbleness & timeliness is your middle name. The Communications Director is constantly aware of real-time developments and adjusts plans to shifts in the education and racial justice landscape internally and externally. Gather input from program leads and the organizing teams to create a process for implementing communications strategies. Ensure communications strategies and tactics are aligned with CFJ’s four regions and statewide policy advocacy and campaigns. Actively monitor, assess and ensure the execution of communications and narrative strategies held by oneself, the Communications Manager and Digital strategist. Internal Capacity Building Leadership (25%) Attending speaking engagements and hosting special events Developing relationships and working with media outlets, community based allies and youth ensuring communications team is developing leaders in the work (holding & designing workshops - in partnership with teams and departments across the organization) Acts as chief storyteller, researching and writing everything from op-eds and blog posts to email blasts, talking points, campaign briefs, media statements for research projects and actions with support from communications manager. Own and builds CFJ’s visibility statewide and regionally (Oakland, San Jose, Fresno & Long Beach) through earned media and other strategic media opportunities Work with the regional and statewide leadership team and intern youth leaders to position CFJ as a leader in the education and racial justice field by positioning and building staff leadership & expertise in the field through earned media, self-published content and spokesperson opportunities, and more. Actively monitors and tracks media and education landscape for earned media and thought leadership opportunities for staff and leaders, including regular pitching to reporters Manage and maintain press lists & contacts statewide & regionally on a monthly basis Branding & Positioning (20%) Oversees organizational brand strategies to position Californians for Justice as a leader in statewide & regional education policy, capacity building, and youth organizing. Leads and manages CFJ’s editorial calendar; ensures content is aligned to regional programs and campaigns, is responsive to media and political landscape Supports development team and maintenance of a Story Bank that consists of short and long form, and digital content with the Communications Manager and Digital Strategist Ensures consistent visibility of our work in earned media outlets, statewide and local organizing wins and campaigns are known among funders, donors and allies Ensures all communications materials are high quality, accurate and consistent to CFJ’s brand for key audiences and across all communication and social media platforms Supervision & Meetings (15%) Supervises and develops the leadership of the Communications Manager & Digital Strategist Leads weekly content and bi-weekly communication meetings Fosters a team culture of collaboration, alignment, spaciousness (time to reflect & learn), joy and evaluation within the team and across the organization to ensure our strategies build narrative and political power Organizational Responsibilities (5%) Participate in grassroots fundraising campaigns Participate in cross-department committees and teams. Provide support and participation for organization-wide and regional campaigns and events. Solving problems and having a solution based mindset. Develop and provide training with the support of teams. Providing ideas and proposals to support and enhance organizational and programmatic goals. And other duties as needed. Essential Qualifications Demonstrated success with a minimum of 7 years of experience as a program or project director in community, youth, and education organizing or education capacity building work. Manage the programmatic budget for the Capacity Building department. At least 7 years of experience and expertise in racial and educational justice, combined with a deep commitment to student engagement. A minimum of 4 years of direct supervision experience, showcasing effective leadership and team management skills. Expertise in training and facilitation, with a demonstrated ability to engage diverse interest holder audiences. Exceptional written and oral communication skills, ensuring effective conveyance of ideas and information. Outstanding organizational and project management skills, including the ability to manage competing priorities and deadlines, attention to detail, and thorough follow-through. Proven ability to problem-solve and initiate effective solutions in a dynamic work environment. Thrives in a collaborative team environment, contributing positively to team dynamics and outcomes. Strong computer skills, particularly in Microsoft Office and various applications relevant to the role. Willingness to travel 1-2 times a month (overnight) or as needed to client regions. Physical Demands Able to work on a computer, including sitting at a desk, for extended periods of time with or without reasonable accommodation. Manual dexterity to operate a keyboard. Able to see or read a computer screen and printed material with or without vision aids. Able to speak clearly and in audible tones on the phone and in person and be understood by others. Able to hear and understand speech at normal levels and on the telephone. Able to understand and follow oral and written instructions. Able to occasionally lift objects weighing up to 10 pounds. Disclaimer: Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis as they are received. This job posting will officially close on March 27th, 2025. We encourage interested candidates to submit their applications promptly. Compensation The salary for this position is $97,867 annually, which is aligned with all CFJ Director-level salaries.